Suicide is Painless
by CelesteBloodfire
Summary: one-shot...Prentiss finds Reid strung up in his apartment. The team thinks its just suicide but Emily knows someone killed him. She has to find his killer. WARNING character death.


Reid hadn't been on the case with them. Over the course of the week the entire team texted or called him at one point or another, all to no avail. So when Prentiss got back to Virginia and got off the plane she threw her go-bag in her car and raced to Reid's. She walked up to the door of the apartment building and buzzed up to his apartment. She buzzed several more times before giving up. She looked out over the parking lot and saw his car and motorcycle. He must be home. _Is he in trouble? _

She buzzed another person's apartment and after telling her it was official FBI business the owner let her in. Prentiss threw herself up the stairs and around the corner. Standing at his apartment door she wondered if she should break the door down or knock to see if he'll answer. Instead she reached down and tried the doorknob. It opened right up. _Reid never left his door unlocked._

She opened the door the rest of the way and walked into his apartment. The first thing she saw was an envelope addressed to her. She ripped it open and began to read the letter that was inside.

Dear Emily

I knew you would be the first person to come looking for me. You have always been my best friend. Ever since you started working here. It is you I want to explain this to and so I shall.

I could feel the fingers of schizophrenia closing around me. All I know is that when I die I want to die with all of me faculties in order. Ever since I started dilaudid I could feel my time growing even shorter and I could not bare the thought of you guys find me lonely and helplessly walking the streets having no idea where I am or how I got there.

Please tell the team I love them all and tell Derek it's not his fault. You know how he is. Always blaming himself for stuff he had no control over. Tell JJ not to cry for me, tell Penelope that I finally get to meet her parents, tell Rossi to keep his sense of humor, and tell Hotch he has always been my favorite boss.

Emily I want you to know I love you. I have loved you since that your first day when you fake laughed at Derek's joke.

But I want you all to keep living your life. You all have so much more to give. I love you all.

Yours Truly

_Dr Spencer Reid_

Prentiss threw the paper on the table and ran into Reid's living room only to see Reid's lifeless body hanging from the ceiling fan. Prentiss dropped to her knees and started bawling. This was Reid. Life and soul in a place that was sometimes so sad and depressing it could drive a weaker person insane. She had loved Reid almost as long as he loved her. Why couldn't she have just told him.

She picked up her phone and dialed Derek. "Reid...is...d-d-d-dead." she blubbered to him. Derek walked into the building a few minutes later with Hotch JJ and Rossi. JJ and Derek picked her up off the ground and led her into the other room while Hotch and Rossi gently took Reid's body down. Emily pulled away from Derek and handed him the letter.

"Reid was murdered." She said once she had restored her infamous calm.

"Emily its obviously a suicide note." Derek said softly.

"But its not him...it doesn't sound like something he'd write." She insisted.

"None of us it coming." JJ said in that oh-you-poor-baby tone that Emily hated. They didn't get it and they never would. _I guess I am on my own now._ She shut the rest of the team out completely. She hated doing this without the team but she had to find Reid's killer. There was no way he snuck being suicidal past her.

OK step one...victimology. Why Reid? Well there were the unsubs they put away, he was an addict...he might have been targeted for that, he might have made the wrong person feel dumb. They'd once teased him about it. _There's a lot of things to hate about you Reid. _Emily put on her gloves and set to work collecting evidence.

She spent the next couple of days trying to figure out who did it. She tracked down every single fingerprint, piece of hair, and lead she could get her hands on. She arrested several innocent people until Hotch told her that harassing the public wasn't going to bring him back. Prentiss told him that waiting around doing nothing wasn't going to solve his murder. So instead of bringing them to the BAU she brought them to her apartment.

A couple of days after that she was arrested for kidnapping. Hotch got her the insanity plea under the assumption Reid's death was the stressor. She was carted off to a mental institution the next day. With her investigation she missed Reid's funeral. _I guess I am a weaker person after all. _Was her last thought before tying the noose around her own neck going to join her soul mate in the afterlife.

* * *

Erin looked at Prentiss as she was carted off to the insane-asylum. She got away with it she had actually gotten away with it. Reid was dead, Prentiss in chains, and no messy fraternization files crossed her desk. Her section was still clean as a whistle. Next was that Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia.

* * *

What do you think?


End file.
